Optima Yellow Top

[TD4FREEW/CTD]

I have had serious trouble bringing an optima battery back from the dead.

put it on a battery tender/charger and took a week to give me the green light. still have not tested it in a car. the charging system of the car was not getting it going after it was jumped.

then again, this was in a 57 Fury. the charging system could have been toast.

have not really had any problems with the optima in my pickemup truck.

...this something I have wondered about...especially in relation to an older vehicle....gel/agm batteries are supposed to need a charger specifically designed for gel/agm batteries, so an older vehicle will(should) not charge them properly...how about a newer vehicle...are the charging systems smarter on them or is the deal about a specific charger just a bunch of hooey?????? Inquiring minds just wanna know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
madjack

thats a good question. i always thought that alternators needed a good drive round the block to put a decent charge in a battery, the lead mech at my shop says only with a generator. he has had me charge alternator charged batts just by letting the car idle.

in retrospect it makes sense. when the yellow top died in the fury, a jump start would get it going but if you let the engine run down to idle the whole system would die from lack of electrical power.

i dont know how that old system was regulated, but i would have thought that 50 years later regulator technology has improved.

[Alphacarina]

The old mechanical regulators for generators were basically an 'all or nothing' proposition - When the voltage went too high, the generator was disconnected from the battery, which of course caused the voltage to immediately go too low, so the relay reconnects it to the battery - 50 to 200 times per second

A second relay limited current in a similar manner, so the generator wouldn't overheat and melt down - Off and on, on and off, many times per second

Electronic alternator regulators adjust both voltage and current to the ideal specs and hold it there

The absorbtion and float voltages for gel batteries ARE different than regular lead acid bateries . . . . at least for deep cycle batteries but modern AGM's aren't so picky and an AGM is an excellent choice in any modern car - If you have an Optima then either the Red Top starting battery or a Yellow Top deep cycle one will work fine with your stock voltage regulator will last a long time - 10 years plus isn't all that unusual

Don

[legend lime]

seams to me that if we are building an RV (Tear Drop ) then one would want to go with an RV deep cycle Battery which by Optima Starndards is the Blue Top not the Yellow Top, Also I have seen the Blue Top sale for less than what the Yellow Tops are going for. just my 2c worth.

http://www.optimabatteries.com/home.php

[Alphacarina]

seams to me that if we are building an RV (Tear Drop ) then one would want to go with an RV deep cycle Battery which by Optima Starndards is the Blue Top not the Yellow Top

The blue top is a combination starting/deep cycle battery . . . . so if your tear has an engine (like many RV's do) then it would be the logical choice

From Optima's literature: "The OPTIMA BlueTop battery is available as a starting or deep cycle battery for marine and RV applications and has all the valuable characteristics of its two brothers - the RedTop and YellowTop"

If you don't want to start an engine with your battery, but only want the longest lifespan with the most deep cycles, then the Yellow Top dedicated deep cycle battery makes more sense - It's a better battery, which is why it costs more

Don

[legend lime]

Alphacarina: wrote
From Optima's literature: "The OPTIMA BlueTop battery is available as a starting or deep cycle battery for marine and RV applications and has all the valuable characteristics of its two brothers - the RedTop and YellowTop"

You know thats funny, I just happen to have the OPTIMA LITERATURE in my hand and what it says is! that if your boat has a lot of accessories such as lights, fish finder, trolling motor, radar, high-performance stero, bilge pumps or chart plotter it demands more from it's battery. OPTIMA Blue Top DEEP CYCLE batteries provied the CYCLING ABILITY your boat demands while maintaining the CRANKING ABILITY it needs. While they are using A Boat as a referance this holds true for RV's be it a $250,000.00 coach (which I have and it has Blue Top's 6V for the coach side) or a $2,800.00 Tear Drop the Blue Top is designed to take the cycling. And one other thing they are all starting (cranking) batteries and yes the yellow top does coast more that the blue top but if you will look at the back of their literature you will see that the CCA for the D34 and D34M are the same, the R/C is the same 120 so why spend the extra money for a battery that's not a deep cycle battery? and yes contery to some opions a TD is an RV, it just doesn't have and engine at least not until I figure out how to mount my three wheeler on the front to pull it with[/quote]

[asianflava]

To add to the confusion, there are 2 blue tops, at least there were when I bought mine. A blue top with a gray body and a blue top with a white body. They are supposed to be different but I don't remember why.

[bobhenry]

$140.00 bucks for a battery Some of you have way to much disposable income !

I bought a new battery for the van and took the old one out for the tear total cost $ 0 .

I am not going on a 7 day outing into never never land so I don't see the need to drop the cash for an over priced battery.

But I'm a cheap skate. Just my opinion

[Alphacarina]

You know thats funny, I just happen to have the OPTIMA LITERATURE in my hand and what it says is that if your boat has a lot of accessories such as lights, fish finder, trolling motor, radar, high-performance stero, bilge pumps or chart plotter it demands more from it's battery

Yes, that's true

Many boats have dedicated deep cycle 'house batteries' (sometime two banks of them) which run all the accessories when the engine(s) are not running - True deep cycle batteries are the way to go because they give you more cycles before failure than starting batteries do

But if you have a boat (or an RV) which depends on the starting battery to run the house loads, then Optima has made a special battery just for you - The Blue Top series

Not quite as good a dedicated starting battery as the Red Tops are and not quite as good a deep cycle battery as the Yellow Tops are, but a pretty good combination of the two - A starting battery which doubles pretty well as a deep cycle battery. Perfect for the small boat or RV which only has one battery which must 'do it all'

Most serious boaters or RV enthsiasts though use separate battery banks for running all the loads when the engine isn't running so that there's less likleyhood of running down the only battery you have and not being able to start the engine when you want to . . . . but if you're pinching pennies and can only afford a single battery for your RV or your boat . . . . then I agree with you that it probably should be a Blue Top - Optima thinks so too, cause that's the target market for their Blue Tops

Don

[asianflava]

$140.00 bucks for a battery Some of you have way to much disposable income !

Yeah but some people also balk at paying for high speed internet too. Not having to worry about the outgassing is a big plus for these batteries.

[bobhenry]

Go ahead and make fun of us poor folk.

No Cable or dish at home

No internet at home

No garbage pickup

God am I really that cheap !

German Dutch and Irish decent must be some Scotch in there too !